Quote:
Originally Posted by swifty
8 Valve Ed I never gave the horn bracket a thought, the bracket that came with the horn is 2mm mild steel while the brackets i welded to the frame are 1/8" thick so i think i will do a little experimenting as i have gone for the twin high and low note disc horns for a distinctive sound so cheers on that one.
You must of had a large workshop to house a 4 ton vert mill and a couple of colchesters, one of the lathe's i use is a Dean Smith and Grace which i think date's from the mid fifties but still turns out accurate work with the addition of a DRO for laziness but i can honestly say some of these modern lathes are not a patch on the old boys.
I like the manual lathes for the small items I've machined as it gives me the freedom to do a simple sketch then turn as required without being tied up on the tolerances and if its not right i can go back and alter at will.
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Hi nearly missed this, been a bit distracted with software updates...
Yes, I had a great workshop, The firm I worked for were builders but because of my tenancy towards metal, I was allowed to equip my own workshop and I used it to innovate for the building side, I built all sorts of specialised equipment for underpinning buildings and drilling rock in difficult locations, rippers and specialised joinery tooling, to mention but a few. Unfortunately I have few photo's from those days.
The Cincinnati could drill a 50mm hole in one pass through 75mm boiler plate without even flinching. I had a little Denby flat belt driven horizontal mill too, that ended up as a rolling mill to curve large (75mm sq) box section to fabricate curved railings. I had a few diggers too.
I have decided if my host who is letting me use his shed, will allow, I hope to get my own lathe later this year. I have the free use of two but they are thirty and fifty miles away, I need to arrange access at mutually convenient times and there is the ever present risk of me breaking somebody else's (expensive) tooling. I need to be able to pop a chunk of metal in the chuck and turn it there and then. There are so many occasions I would have used a lathe during my Berlinetta restoration had one been readily available.
I am used to Colchesters, my friends is an old Harrison, I find the small headstock hole very restrictive, I think it's only 14mm and it only has an MT2 tailstock taper despite being quite a large and heavy lathe.
I need at least 25mm through the head with an MT3 tailstock. Min 150 throw and 600 between centres. I have been looking on eBay and there seem to be plenty with tooling and chucks well below £700.
I want to be able to turn rollers for a swaging machine/jenny (bead roller) The next phase of my build will hopefully involve replacing most or all of the GRP panels with aluminium.